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I grab the dress from Erin’s hand and put it back on the rack. “I’m so sorry.”
Erin rubs Jordan’s shoulder with a comforting caress. “I’m really sorry, too. If you ever need to talk, or anything.”
“Thanks, I’m just returning my sister’s bridesmaid dress.”
I step away, letting Erin console her friend, and wander to the front of the store while they discuss Jordan’s wedding, or lack thereof.
Outside of the glass store front, people amble by, and I watch for a minute, wondering if they’re doing things they want to do orhaveto do. Like me. Across the street, a man in a ball cap stands, shoulder propped against the brick corner of a coffee shop, staring right at me. The fine hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I can’t make out his face, so I inch a little closer to the window.
Is he watching me?
He turns away, and slips into the shadows of the alley.
“What are you doing?” Erin asks and I nearly jump out of my skin. “Are you ok?”
“Yeah.” I wipe a few strands of hair off my forehead. “You just scared me.”
Erin looks me up and down before turning to gaze out the window. “You sure?”
I nod, trying to convince myself that he was just a stranger standing there for any other reason but me. “I’m sure.” I turn my attention to a long, silky lavender dress hanging on the rack. “How about this?”
“Oh, I love that,” she says, removing it.
As Erin tries on the gown in the dressing room, my phone beeps. I pull it out and nearly drop it when I read the text from an unknown number— “I see you.”
“Mommy, can you read me a story,”Tennyson says after his bath later in the evening. After I left the dress shop, I headed straight to Tenny’s daycare to grab him early. I’ve felt scatterbrained since the text came through. And I want nothing more than to just lay with Tennyson and forget about all of this madness.
“Of course.”
I do a quick brush of his hair, and make sure he brushes his teeth before we head off to his bedroom. It’s strange being here. I constantly find myself looking over my shoulder wondering where Gabriel is. Almost as if his eyes are on me all the time. Most nights I spy on him out in the courtyard, flying his drone in silence. All alone, controlling the scraps of metal and plastic, flying them higher and higher into the summer night sky.
It’s almost soothing watching him, alone in my room, making sure he can’t see me spying.
But, now after the meeting with Ronin and everything else going on, I feel like a whole new set of eyes are on me—Bishop’s. And I don’t know what to do about it.
Part of me just wants to tell Gabriel everything. Let him in on the burden that has plagued me for years. He said he’d protect me. It would be so easy to let him take care of everything.
But, I don’t know if I can.
“One story,” I say, sitting on the bed with him after I tuck him under hisBatmancovers.
“Two, please?” His big brown eyes stare up at me, and how can you say no to this face?
“Ok, two.”
I grab his favorite books and start on the first page, feeling the stress of the day empty as I lay my head next to his. I’m out before I even make it to the second book, all the excitement and mayhem of the afternoon finally catching up to me.
“Clementine? You awake?” Gabriel’s voice calls from my dreams. “Clementine.”
I feel his hand touch my cheek and I no longer know if I’m dreaming or fully awake. I jerk upright in the bed, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. “Gabriel, what time is it?”
“It’s still early, not even nine.”
I glance over at a sleeping Tennyson. “I must have fallen asleep reading him his story.”
“I have something to show you,” Gabriel says. “It just arrived today.”
I stand, doing a little stretch, before I follow him out of the room and down the staircase.
